The Honeycomb Connection Series

FRIENDSHIP 101: By Pastor Chris Jordan

Part #1 – THE HONEYCOMB CONNECTION:

We’re going to take a look at the blueprint that God has given us for the church. Because if we’re not doing things the way that God intended us to do things in the Bible, then we are living far below that great, awesome and exciting standard that He has for our lives. If we want to know what church is supposed to look like, we need to go back to the beginning where Jesus started His church in the book of Acts.

The Bible says, “They committed themselves to:

1. the TEACHING of the apostles...

(one thing that was so important to the early church was the Bible – they committed to believe, and learn, and practice what God has to say for our lives),

2. the life TOGETHER...

(they realized that as Christians, God has not called us to go through life alone. In fact, one of the very first things that God said in Genesis chapter two was, “It is not good for man to be alone.” God brought us together for a reason, to connect in friendships with each other and go through this journey of life together),

3. the common MEAL, and

4. the PRAYERS

(another important part of the Christian life is prayer).

5. Everyone around was in awe - all those WONDERS ADN SIGNS done through the apostles!

(Another aspect of the early church was that it was a place where signs and wonders, and healings and miracles took place. If you’ve been around our youth group for the last couple of months, you know we’ve done some teaching on healing and miracles, and we’ve seen amazing, miraculous things happen, because that’s the church the way God intended church to be!).

6. And all the believers lived in a wonderful HARMONY, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person’s need was met.

7. They followed a daily discipline of WORSHIP in the Temple

(worship is an important part of our lives as Christians),

8. followed by meals at HOME, every meal a celebration, exuberant and

9. JOYFUL

(joy is an important part of our Christian lives – it’s fun being saved! God wants us to have fun and enjoy life! Some of you take your Christianity too seriously – you know we’re supposed to be holy and sanctified, but do you also know that the Bible says, In God’s presence there is fullness of God; at God’s right hand there are pleasures forevermore? There is a joy and a fun that you can have in God!),

10. as they PRAISED GOD. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were SAVED.” (Acts 2:42-47, the Message).

The title for my message is “FRIENDSHIP 101.” If you go to university or college, you see that on a lot of courses that you take: Humanities 101 or 102 or whatever. And I thought wouldn’t it be good if we took some time to learn about this thing called friendships? One of the things I’ve noticed when you go to school is that they don’t offer a class in friendships. You go to school and learn all these subjects, and you take your math and French, and you ask, “When am I ever going to use this again?” Have you ever asked that question before? How much more would it benefit our lives if we took a practical class in friendships? All of life is based on relationships. From now until the day that you die, every single day you’re going to interact with people. And wouldn’t it be great if we could learn to do that in a way where we got along with one another? Where we enjoyed our friendships with one another, and weren’t fighting and backbiting all the time? Thank God He has given us the Bible – the book of wisdom – that tells us how to have good relationships with each another. Here is the key Scripture in the Bible that shows us how to live in right relationship with one another. This is a foundational principle for the Christian life:

“Jesus said, "’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ’You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40).

Do you know what Jesus meant by that last statement? Jesus is saying that if we could keep just two commandments, to love God with all our heart, and love our neighbour as ourselves, we would be keeping every other commandment in the Bible. Wow!